Man vs Jungle Survival Stories

Man vs Jungle survival stories always make us wonder, how long do you think you would survive lost in the jungle? A day, three days, maybe a week? Let’s hope you never have to find out. Unfortunately, some people weren’t so lucky. Thrust into the mouth of the wild, their harrowing stories will shock you. They used their brains, skills, and a little bit of luck to survive some of the most insane ordeals. But, with strong odds against them, it’s hard to believe any of them made it out alive. You might even call it miraculous. How would you survive the many dangers of the jungle? Here are 10 of the most insane Man vs Jungle Survival Stories.

Shannon Leah Fraser, 30, was visiting the Golden Hole in Queensland, Australia when she got separated from her fiancé and lost in the rainforest near Josephine Falls. Completely unprepared, Fraser had no supplies with her and was only wearing leggings, thongs, and a t-shirt. For 16 days, Fraser walked through a snake, crocodile, and spider-infested wilderness. In fact, rescue workers and the family feared the worst and lost hope they would find her alive.

However, on the 16th day, banana farmer Brad Finch saw her emerge from the jungle 32 yards (30 meters) from where she was last seen. She was severely sunburned and had lost 37.5 pounds (17 kilograms). Her feat of survival was so unbelievable, that at first authorities thought it was an elaborate prank. However, her injuries and “wilderness-ravaged” appearance were evidence to her story’s legitimacy.

9

Rochom P’ngieng

A woman suffering from mental health issues survived living in the jungle for a whole year. No one knows exactly how she got lost, but she was reported missing in 2006. She was later found by a farmer after he caught her stealing food from him. However, in a bizarre twist, when the girl was first discovered it was believed she had spent 18 years living in the jungle.

This is because she was confused with another missing child. Eight-year-old Rochom Pngieng disappeared in 1988 while tending a herd of buffalo in the isolated region of Phnom Penh roughly 200 miles (321 kilometers) from the Cambodian capital. When found, she was identified by a Cambodian family as Rochom P’ngieng. However, ten years after she was found by a 70-year-old Vietnamese man named Peo, claiming to be her real father. Peo agreed to pay the adoptive family $1,500 for taking care of her and is now reunited with his daughter.

Kazuo Hoshi, a civilian recruit for the Japanese navy’s meteorology unit, survived eight years in the jungles of Guam while running away from the American army during World War II. He was one of about 2,000 to 3,000 Japanese to have run into the jungle.

He survived by going from cave to cave and eating livestock from deserted ranches. However, after Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, Hoshi remained hidden and would not come out. He was discovered by a hunter and then surrendered in 1952. Today, Hoshi owns an ice-making machinery business and helps the government find remains of Japanese nationals who died in the war.

Thirty-eight-year-old Denise Ciunek set out on a solo hike 15 miles (25-kilometers) into the Caminho do Itupava, a steep 17th-century track up the Serra do Mar Mountains in southern Brazil. She eventually came across a gunman who attacked her and threatened to rape her. She fended off the gunman by jumping into a river.

Though safe from the gunman, she had now lost the trail and was lost in the Brazilian jungle. Eventually, she was able to find a spot in a valley between waterfalls where she waited for help. It took 17 days, but she was found alive by firemen, but in poor condition.

6

Maykool Coroseo Acuña Saved by Monkeys

This is one of the weirdest stories you’re about to read. Twenty-five-year-old Maykool Coroseo Acuña was visiting Madidi National Park in the Bolivian Amazon when he mysteriously disappeared. Witnesses say that on the night of his disappearance, he was acting strange and noticeably excited. When asked to join a Pachamama ceremony—a tradition thanking mother earth for giving them permission to enter the forest—Acuña refused. Five minutes later he was gone.

Searches for Acuña turned up empty. The locals believed that a powerful mystical entity called “Duende” took Acuña to another dimension. “For myself and the rangers, this is our culture,” one of the rangers told National Geographic, “We believe that Duende is real. And we think it’s possible that Maykool was taken by him.”

Acuña was lost in the forest for nine days but was eventually found less than a mile from the campground. He was weak, dehydrated, and bitten by all sorts of bugs, but he was alive. Acuña disappeared due to disturbing thoughts that overtook his mind. He was plagued by an irresistible desire to run into the jungle. The harrowing journey through the jungle could have cost him his life, but thanks to monkeys (you read that correctly…monkeys), Acuña was able to survive. How? The monkeys gave him fruit and led him to shelter water on a daily basis. Now, if that’s not the weirdest survival story you’ve ever heard, I don’t know what is.

You may be familiar with British actor Paul Nicholls. He rose to fame on the BBC soap “EastEnders” and had a role in “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.” However, did you know that Nicholls survived being trapped in the jungle?

It all started when Nicholls decided to take a stroll on his scooter and explore the jungles of Koh Samui, Thailand’s second largest island. During his journey, the actor came across 15 wild dogs which proceeded to chase him off and down into a waterfall. After the fall, the actor ended up with both legs broken and a shattered knee.

However, the actor survived the fall, only to fight off leaches and crabs. “I thought ‘Those are leeches, those are very big leeches’, and as soon as the blood hit the water, these crabs came out, and I managed to get rid of them quite quickly, but the leeches just seemed to start coming out of holes in the wall, they were coming out of the mud, they were just coming out of everywhere.” For three days, Nicholls hung on for dear life until he was found by Volunteer rescuers.

Gileno Vieira da Rocha

“Every shortcut has a price usually greater than the reward,” said Bryant McGill. This proved to be painfully true in this incredible story.

Engineer Gileno Vieira da Rocha, 65, had been working on a stretch of the Trans-Amazonian highway roughly 300 miles south of Manaus, northern Brazil, when he decided to take a short-cut through a field. At least, that’s what he thought he was taking. He ended up entering the forest and getting lost in a remote part of the Amazon jungle. For 12 days, Vieira fought to stay alive by eating wasps and flies. Fortunately, he was found by a team of police officers and firefighters using sniffer dogs to track him down.

Being lost in the jungle is like a race against the clock. Every minute, hour, day, decreases your chances of survival, especially if you are not prepared. So, to survive any length of time unprepared in the jungle is astonishing. But to survive 47 days is something completely mind-blowing.

That’s what two Children in the Malaysian state of Kelantan did. On August 23, 2015, seven children aged between seven and 11 got lost in the Tohoi forest reserve. Reports say the children were running away from school in an attempt to avoid strict punishment from teachers because the children were caught playing in a river. It took search parties two days after the children’s disappearance to begin searching for them in what has been labeled as an example of governmental negligence.

For 45 days, search parties looked through the area in search of the children. On Friday, October 9th two of the seven Orang Asli children, missing in the jungles of the Malaysian, were found alive but incredibly malnourished. As for the other childre, they weren’t found alive. The children reported that as they ran through the jungle they fell down a ravine to a riverbank. One of the children was swept away by the fast flowing river, another child was pierced by bamboo on his leg, and a third child also suffered injuries from the fall; both died after a few days. Only bones and fragments were found of the fourth child. The fifth child has never been found.

Exploring the wilderness with friends can be a great way to connect, but it can also be a dangerous place, so you better be prepared. In 1981, Yossi Ghinsberg set out with three friends to explore the Tuichi River in the Bolivian Amazon. However, they soon realized that they were not properly prepared for the journey and found themselves hopelessly lost.

In an attempt to find their way out, they broke off into pairs with Ghinsberg and his friend Kevin floating on a raft down the river. As they floated down the river, their raft hit a rock and the rapids separated them. Ghinsberg spent the next 19 days wandering through the wilderness on his own. During this time, local men found Kevin and they started a search for Ghinsberg. To everyone’s surprise, he was found alive, wandering the riverbank. Ghinsberg’s incredible story has even been made into a movie called “Jungle,” starring Daniel Radcliffe.

The other pair was sadly never seen again.

1

Juliane Koepcke

For those of you who are afraid of flying, this story won’t help you. On Christmas Eve 1971, Juliane Koepcke was flying on LANSA Flight 508 when the plane was struck by lightning. While still strapped to her seat, Koepcke fell from two miles into the Peruvian rainforest but miraculously survived the fall. She was the only one to do so.

Bruised, battered, and with a broken collarbone, Koepcke found herself stranded in the jungle with only a small piece of candy for food. Eventually, she found a small stream which she used to travel downstream while keeping herself hydrated. By this time, maggots had infested her arm, but after nine days, she found an encampment where she gave herself basic first aid, including pouring gasoline on the maggots. A few hours later, lumber workers found her. They took her to an inhabited area and she was airlifted to a hospital.

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